鲜定味 - Taiwanese Food at Wallet Friendly Prices

10th August 2012. Written by Xin Li.

We decided to have dinner at the unassuming looking restaurant named Xiandingwei (鲜定味), a Taiwanese “Fastfood” joint at IMM. Affordably priced and appearing like some spruced up food court, we had low expectations especially when its “express food” in a shopping mall, think Thai Express or Jia Jia Le in Hong Kong.

To our surprise, the food here was pretty good and the service was quite efficient. On top of that it cost only 46.50 SGD for 4 of us including 4 set meals, an a la carte order and 4 drinks. That’s really good value for money.

For appetizer, we had the Crispy Salted Chicken (6.00 SGD) which reminded me of the Chicken Cutlets in Taiwan. The texture was right the seasoning was close but somewhat muted compared to those you find in Shilin or Ximending. Nonetheless, a worthy substitute if you don’t plan to travel to Taiwan but hope to have something similar.

For my set meal, I ordered the Chicken with Scrambled Egg and Tomato Sauce (7.90 SGD), you could also have fish or beef. The scrambled egg was more of a chopped up omelette but taste wise, it was like a sweet and sour sauce. I have not complaints, since it goes quite well with the rice and the chicken was rather tender too.

My mum had the San Bei Ji (8.90 SGD), their signature dish. My mum wiped it clean and it wasn’t as spicy as I thought. The chicken was tender once again and the sauce went really well with the rice.

My brother-in-law had the Beef in Black Pepper Sauce (8.90 SGD). I was hesitant of ordering beef in such restaurants. Sometimes you might just get sinewy, chewy beef slices. But Xiandingwei was a pleasant surprise, the beef was not only tender, it still carries its flavour, accentuated by the black pepper sauce. This was really good. Our only complaint was that my brother-in-law found a strain of hair in it, what a pity!

My sister ordered something off their special menu, a Soft Shell Crab Fried Rice, I thought it was quite decent, the rice wasn’t too oily for a start and it was rather flavourful. Soft Shell Crab wasn’t soggy at all and was crispy.

All the sets came with a bowl of soup, we had a pork rib and melon soup and 3 sides, which include some vegetables (sadly cold), something like achai and stuffed beancurd.

As for the drink I could not remember the exact name of the drink, it was a daily Homemade Drink with longans in it, and it tasted like Cheng Teng. If you have a sweet tooth, their Bubble Tea is something you should try too. Oddly, we prefer the Han Tien Jelly over the tapioca pearls.

Overall, decent food at affordable prices.

Xiandingwei
鲜定味
2 Jurong East Street 21,
#01-47/48 IMM Building,
6897 2636